A red newspaper box sits on the street on Parliament Street in Toronto.

The Monthly

2018-05-04

More than 2.4 million women and girls are living on a low income with feminine hygiene products being listed as one of the "top three material costs of being a woman". We helped Shoppers Drug Mart and John St. build a feminine hygiene product dispenser to assist homeless and low income women.

Newspaper boxes were repurposed to discreetly assist in supporting women's health. The boxes were rebuilt with a code-locked drawer that would dispense boxes of tampons. The code was then given to local shelters and outreach programs to distribute.

The features include:

  • Battery operation
  • Low-temperature resistant LCD display
  • Vandalism resistant piezoelectric keypad
  • SMS communication for low-battery or low-stock notifications

The awards include:

  • 2018 Advertising & Design Club of Canada: Advertising, Direct (Gold)
  • 2018 Advertising & Design Club of Canada: Advertising, Experiential (Silver)

We proudly worked with Shoppers Drug Mart, John St., Paus and Sixpenny

Fire Burns Up was committed to ongoing maintenance of the boxes; we even replaced a damaged component in -17°C! We're forever grateful to our fabrication partners for inviting us to work on this and for all the extra time and support that went into the project; there were many maintenance visits that are often unacknowledged.

This project is no longer in market, but has made way for more progressive attitudes regarding period poverty.

Feminine hygene products being listed as one of the "top three material costs of being a woman"
An SLA battery and circuits sit on top of a red newspaper box in a fabrication studio
A red newspaper box sits in the snow on Yonge Street. The front placard reads "The Monthly"

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